Gratuitous Plug for Possibly Dying Sport July 15, 2008

a) my Mom’s a Canajun, and my dad was raised in T’ronta
b) my sportswriter buddy assures me hockey players really are regular guys, which makes them a pleasant contrast to the other Big Jocks of Pro Sports:

Quoting Sports Illustrated’s Peter King – a football writer – (btw, anybody noticed that SI.com is now a must-read, giving ESPN.com a run for the money?):

…gritty Pittsburgh Penguin Ryan Malone (who took a slapshot in the face, breaking his nose and badly bruising the orbital bone just below his eye, and missed only two shifts), his agent called me to see if I wanted to talk with him. Sure do, I said; I’ve rarely seen such an act of cold, stark bravery in any sports event. And a few days later, while I was in Athens to give the commencement speech at my alma mater, the phone rang, and it was Malone. “What did it feel like?” I asked. He said, “Like my face got broken. Luckily, I didn’t get, I guess, a broken face, or whatever you would call it. I just got six stitches. And I’d already broken my nose a few days before, so it wasn’t really like a broken nose.”

Playoff hockey really is the best – not that anyone witnessed it. (Well, best after amuhrican football, day for day.) Jupiter report on sports guys online.